


The Other Side

by HopeCoppice



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Alternative Plans for the Apocalypse, First Kiss, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M, Other, They've both known for ages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:41:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29050056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeCoppice/pseuds/HopeCoppice
Summary: After the Apocalypse, Aziraphale and Crowley learn how far they would have gone for each other.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 98





	The Other Side

**Author's Note:**

> So this has been a note in my ideas folder for ages, and I just needed to write something little and sweet and post it today because it's been a few days of not really feeling the whole writing thing and you've gotta grab the motivation when it strikes, I guess. Enjoy!

After dinner at the Ritz, they stumbled home to Aziraphale’s back room, where Crowley immediately fell asleep on the sofa. Aziraphale could hardly blame him; he’d driven his burning car through the fires of the M25, stopped time, and redirected a bus even  _ before  _ they’d swapped corporations. It was no wonder he was exhausted. So he didn’t try to wake him; he just pulled a blanket up and over him, tucking it carefully around the sleeping demon before settling nearby with a book.

A week later, Crowley’s eyes opened at last. He blinked blearily at the room before his gaze settled on Aziraphale.

“Angel,” he mumbled, and Aziraphale’s heart beat a little faster. “D’we win?”

“We did, my dear. Don’t get up just yet.” If Crowley didn’t remember winning, he clearly wasn’t fully awake yet, and the last thing Aziraphale wanted was for him to get tangled in the blanket and fall.

“‘Kay.” He frowned. “Did it work, you forgiving me?”

“What’s that?”

“Was it enough to get Heaven to give me a shot?”

“...I’m sorry, Crowley, you’ve lost me.”

“Thought I had.” Crowley’s shoulders slumped. “And then you were OK, and I thought... Problem was us being on different sides. So I just had to fix that and we’d be fine.”

“Hmm.” Aziraphale moved to sit beside Crowley as he sat up, still bundled up in the blanket. “How would you fix that?”

“It didn’t happen,” Crowley realised at last, “I remember now. Adam stopped it.”

“Yes, dear. But it rather sounded as though you had a plan.”

“‘S stupid, angel. Wouldn’t have worked. I just- must have been a dream-”

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’d be interested to hear about it.”

For a moment, Crowley looked as though he was reaching for words he couldn’t quite find. Then he sighed. “All right.”

* * *

_ “You may need to brandish your weapon, Sergeant Shadwell. We are here to lick some serious butt.” _

_ “‘Kick’, Aziraphale. It’s ‘kick butt’. For Heaven’s sake. Oh! I can’t believe I just said that.” _

_ But as they all continued into the airbase, Crowley couldn’t help but wonder if he might have just stumbled on a last desperate hope for the two of them. He had always thought that he was unforgivable, that he and Heaven were fundamentally incompatible now, since the Fall. But Aziraphale had said  _ I forgive you _ , outside his bookshop before it had burned, and Crowley had said  _ for Heaven’s sake.  _ Wasn’t it possible that he could change his allegiance and really work for Heaven’s sake after all? _

_ They wouldn’t forgive him, of course. He knew that. Aziraphale had always been exceptional in that regard, and Crowley didn’t really want to be an angel again anyway. But it seemed likely that Crowley could be of use to them in some capacity - as a spy, perhaps, like 007, or failing that as a demonic shield against hellfire. If it came to it, if they lost the Earth and had to fight in one final War between Heaven and Hell, perhaps Crowley could change his allegiance and fight at Aziraphale’s side. At least that way, he could protect him openly without making himself a target to  _ both  _ armies. Hell would be furious, of course, but they’d already tried to kill him once. Getting Heaven on his side would mean he’d be safe from them, at least for as long as they needed him. And if Heaven won, they could decide what to do with him then; at least he would know that Aziraphale had made it. _

_ It was decided, then; if they messed this up and he saw the opportunity, Crowley would do whatever he could to change sides. But before it came to that, there was a world to save. _

* * *

“That is a strange dream to have had,” Aziraphale remarked, as Crowley paused for breath, and Crowley shook his head.

“No, that was what I was thinking, really what I was thinking, when we all marched into the airbase. The dream was- well, I thought it had really happened, the War had happened and I’d changed sides. Fought for Heaven.” Crowley cast his eyes downwards, a hint of colour flaring at his cheekbones. “Fought for  _ you.” _

“Oh. Oh, my. That-” Aziraphale didn’t know how to begin making a coherent response to that, so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “You must know they wouldn’t have promised you safety, let alone kept any such promise.”

“I know, it was- I just wanted to be with you, at the end of it all.” Crowley drew all his limbs in closer to himself, under his blanket. “Didn’t matter what happened to me after.”

“Oh, you silly snake.” Crowley looked up then, and Aziraphale wondered if he was shocked by the mild slight or the warm tone in which it was delivered. “Of course it would matter. What on earth would I have done without you?”

For a moment, there was silence, and then Crowley uncurled slightly.

“I did think I had a fighting chance, up until your trial. They’re supposed to be the _good_ guys.” He sounded deeply hurt that it wasn’t the case, and Aziraphale could certainly understand that. After everything the other angels had done - after everything  _ Aziraphale  _ had done or tried to do - God still seemed to hold them all closer to Her heart than Crowley, if only to the minimal extent that she hadn’t cast them all into boiling sulphur yet. Crowley deserved better; it was no wonder he was a little upset about not getting it. He’d never been treated the way he deserved to be treated; not even by Aziraphale, his best friend, who loved him.

“I love you,” he told him - quietly, firmly, the way he told Crowley about all the things he loved despite himself, because he loved to share those things with Crowley - and then he told him again, the way he told Crowley he loved books, or crêpes, or Regency snuffboxes, the things he loved without shame or reservation, because  _ that  _ was what Crowley was to him, all that and more. “I love you.” And then, all at once, he became afraid that after all these years of  _ knowing  _ Crowley loved him, he might have got it wrong, or missed his chance. “I do, but-”

“But?” Crowley’s hesitant smile had collapsed in on itself, and Aziraphale realised his mistake immediately.

“No! Not- not  _ but-  _ I  _ do _ , I just meant to say that if you don’t want to know, I won’t… I won’t press you. Heaven knows you’re within your rights to reject me, after all those centuries-”

“No.” Crowley beamed, and Aziraphale could see stars, flung across the cosmos, in the brightness of his eyes. “No, I love you too, I- hell, Aziraphale, I don’t know what to do with myself, with this  _ love _ business, I’m afraid I’ll disappoint you-”

“Crowley, you’ve been showing me you love me for all these years. You’re a master at it. I’m the one who’ll have to catch up. But I will. You might have to guide me a little, but I will.”

Crowley reached out with a trembling hand to trace the line of Aziraphale’s jaw, and Aziraphale surged forward to draw him into a kiss filled with six thousand years of friendship and loyalty and passion. Crowley moaned into his mouth, a helpless, broken sound, and Aziraphale realised he hadn’t quite said all he needed to.

“For what it’s worth,” he gasped, unwilling to move more than an inch away from Crowley, noses almost touching, “for what it’s worth, I had no intention of reporting for duty. If I’d Fallen for you, I’d have accepted it gladly.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” Crowley murmured, “would have been really embarrassing if we’d both switched sides.”

“Agreed. I’m afraid you were right all along; She doesn’t seem to have been paying much attention.”

“‘Ziraphale,” Crowley murmured, and then,  _ “angel. _ Kiss me again?”

And Aziraphale did.


End file.
